


A Very Tiny Amount of Sympathy

by Wordstreamer



Series: February Ficlets 2019 [10]
Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, and Jokaste and Kastor, and to canon events including a lot of the archive warnings, nothing explicitly stated, references to the regent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-06 20:05:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17946245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wordstreamer/pseuds/Wordstreamer
Summary: It doesn't change what he's done to Damen.  (It does give Damen a very tiny amount of sympathy for him.)(Early in Captive Prince.)





	A Very Tiny Amount of Sympathy

**Author's Note:**

> prompt #25: "Bodyswap"

Damen twitches as he slowly wakes up.  His sheets feel a little off, but that happens when you spend the night in someone else’s bed.  Not that he’s done that for a while…

Vere.  All of the memories hit him in a rush; the betrayal, the pain—the pain.  His back should be in shreds, he should be wrecked, not feeling fine except for a small amount of fatigue.  And he’s in a bed that’s as fine as his own—he pats the sheets, making sure of it. Yes, it's a bed fit for a prince.

His hand is too pale.  At first he thinks it a trick of the light, but he can’t lie to himself for long, not when it’s also too small.  There’s no cuff of gold at either wrist—but there is a wisp of gold out of the corner of his eye.

Somehow, he’s in Laurent’s body.  Another dream, or a particularly vivid hallucination, most likely.

\--

Before the day’s half-finished, he knows it isn’t a dream.  Even considering what Kastor and Jokaste did to him, Damen still wouldn’t have conceived of the sly insinuations from the Regent—or the far too young pet—and what they mean about Laurent’s past.

It doesn’t change what he’s done to Damen.

But losing his father and brother in one fell swoop, then being so terribly used by the one family member he had remaining?  And betrayed as soundly as Damen was?  No apparent friends in court, at least none who wouldn’t turn on him if the Regent commanded it.

It doesn’t change what he’s done to Damen or what he’ll likely do to Damen whenever their positions are reversed again.

(It does give Damen a very tiny amount of sympathy for him.)

Damen’s not going to use the changed power balance to torture Laurent.  He’s also not going to tell Laurent that—it’s a little perverse, and it’s unsettling to see on his face, but Damen takes pleasure in the look of fear he gets when he first sees Laurent that day.

Whenever they change back, Damen will be the one to suffer the after-effects of anything inflicted on Laurent.  And whenever they change back, Laurent is likely to be even crueler if Damen hurts him.

The third reason, which is a little more petty, is that he can be smug about the fact that Laurent wasn’t tortured when he was at Damen’s mercy.  That’s probably going to be enjoyable until the first slap he’ll get for it, but the first two reasons are the main ones.

\--

The next morning, Damen’s not surprised to wake up in agony.  He wouldn’t have been surprised to wake up on the same bed where he went to sleep, either.  He _is_ surprised to find Laurent in the room with him.

“You didn’t touch me yesterday,” Laurent says.  Alone in the room with him, not that anyone else would aid Damen if he needed it.  “Do you think that earns you my forgiveness?”

“Your _forgiveness?”_ Damen echoes.  Laurent doesn’t reply to that, merely tips his head to one side in consideration.

“It certainly deserves something, even if only the acknowledgement of your self-preservation instincts.”  Another moment of silence, one that Damen isn’t going to interrupt.  He doesn’t want to tip the balance one way or another; he’s curious to see what Laurent has planned.  Maybe he doesn’t know exactly what it is, but he’s sure that Laurent had this planned before entering the room.  His mouth opens again, at last.

“I know who you are, Damianos.”


End file.
